Editing Critique of Practical Reason (section)

== Context ==
Kant did not initially plan to publish a separate critique of practical reason. He published the first edition of the ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'' in May 1781 as a "critique of the entire faculty of reason in general"<ref>{{cite book |last=Kant |first=Immanuel |title=Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant) |year=1999 |others=Translated and edited by [[Paul Guyer]] and [[Allen W. Wood]] |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5216-5729-7 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqeX8MJurLkC}}</ref><ref>Kant, KrV Axii</ref> (viz., of both theoretical and practical reason) and a "propaedeutic" or preparation investigating "the faculty of reason in regard to all pure ''a priori'' cognition"<ref>{{cite book |last=Kant |first=Immanuel |title=Critique of Pure Reason (The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant) |year=1999 |others=Translated and edited by [[Paul Guyer]] and [[Allen W. Wood]] |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-5216-5729-7 |page=696 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qqeX8MJurLkC}}</ref><ref>Kant, KrV A841/B869</ref> to set up for a metaphysics of nature and a metaphysics of morals.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Lewis |author1-link=Lewis White Beck |title=A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason |date=May 1, 1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226040752 |pages=9-10 |edition=2nd |language=English}}</ref> 

Next, Kant began work on a metaphysics of morals by writing the ''Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'', published in 1785. Certain remarks in that work show that Kant had changed his mind about the idea of a critique of practical reason. In the Preface, Kant distinguished between a "critique of pure practical reason" and a "critique of pure speculative reason". He also came to think that a metaphysics of morals could only really be founded on the former critique just as a metaphysics of nature needed the latter critique. A critique of pure practical reason, Kant thought, was less necessary than a critique of pure speculative reason since "in moral matters human reason can easily be brought to a high degree of correctness and accomplishment, even in the most common understanding".<ref>Kant, GMS 4:391</ref> The third section titled "Transition from metaphysics of morals to the critique of pure practical reason" was written to accomplish what he originally thought was at least partially needed in a critique of pure practical reason to properly set up a metaphysics of morals.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walschots |first1=Michael |title=Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (Cambridge Philosophical Texts in Context) |date=March 28, 2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108810487 |pages=4-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Lewis |author1-link=Lewis White Beck |title=A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason |date=May 1, 1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226040752 |pages=11-13 |edition=2nd |language=English}}</ref> 

However, Kant then changed his mind again and planned the ''Critique of Practical Reason'' as an appendix to the second edition of the ''Critique of Pure Reason'' to respond to some of the criticisms made by reviewers and commenters against the latter work.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Walschots |first1=Michael |title=Kant's Critique of Practical Reason (Cambridge Philosophical Texts in Context) |date=March 28, 2024 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108810487 |pages=4-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Höffe |first1=Otfried |editor1-last=Höffe |editor1-first=Otfried |editor2-last=Wood |editor2-first=Allen |title=Immanuel Kant: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft |date=December 4, 2023 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=9783110780840 |page=25-26 |edition=3rd |chapter=2. Preface and Introduction (3-16)}}</ref> He declared his plan in an announcement he published in the [[Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung]] in November 1786,<ref>Kant, Ak. 3:556</ref> but shortly abandoned it and completed the second edition of the ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]'', published in April 1787, without an appended critique of practical reason.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Lewis |author1-link=Lewis White Beck |title=A Commentary on Kant's Critique of Practical Reason |date=May 1, 1996 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226040752 |pages=13-17 |edition=2nd |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Timmermann |editor1-first=Jens |editor2-last=Reath |editor2-first=Andrews |title=Kant's 'Critique of Practical Reason': A Critical Guide |date=May 30, 2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107675384 |pages=12-14 |language=English}}</ref> 

Finally, in June 1787, Kant sent the completed manuscript of his new ''Critique of Practical Reason'' to printers in Halle<ref>Kant, Ak. 10:494</ref> where it was finally published in December 1787<ref>Kant, Ak. 10:506</ref> but listed as published in 1788.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuehn |first=Manfred |year=2001 |title=Kant: a Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-49704-6 |page=311}}</ref>